Fostering a healthy body image is all the rage in the fashion industry these days!

For instance, major modeling agencies are now accepting models outside of their usual 5’10” - size 2 range, Tyra Banks has taken issue with the plus-size label, and models of all shapes and sizes have begun to grace high-fashion runways.

So is it time for the traditional Barbie doll to make a change as well?

With many young girls looking to Barbie’s curves and itty-bitty waist for an unhealthy source of thinspiration, many are saying yes.

A Facebook page dedicated to Plus Size Modeling recently posted a photo (above) asking followers if they would like to see bigger barbies in stores, and the response was decidedly mixed!

The responses ranged from:

"No one is naturally fat for gods sake, that's sending the message to girls that it's ok to look like this and be unhealthy.. How about we stop obsessing about being overweight and teach our children to eat healthy and get out and play…"

To:

"Not every big girl is unfit or unhealthy! I'm sick of people saying someone is unhealthy because of their size!!! An average size Barbie would be awesome and would probably boost confidence to millions of little girls everywhere!!!!! Being yourself is one of the most beautiful things!!!"

To:

"Why not have a realistically proportioned Barbie that promotes healthy diet and exercise?"

And even:

"This is not what plus size women looks like. This doll is a terrible impression of a plus size woman."

Inneresting! And just FYI, the facebook account actually took the image from a 2011 contest submission off Worth1000.com, so clearly the thought has been around for a while now!

Well, let's take it a logical step further. Let's make Barbie really ugly. We can't be politically correct if we don't make a Barbie that unpleasing to the eye, has a hunchback and as well as a pus-filled tumor the size of Rhode Island stemming from her abdomen. Where does this stop? I'm not against it, it's just that there would be no end to how sensitive a single group is.

Why does the barbie have to have a triple chin? Not all people who are overweight have triple chins. On another note I am not near skinny but I am fit. I would like to see a barbie who isnt obese but isn't rail thin. Why can't there be an in between?

I think that it is rediculous to create a plus sized barbie when there is a huge problem with obesity. There should be a healthy sized barbie but promoting obesity is as bad as promoting being skinny. There are a lot more health risks to being obese.

The main image you chose is not of a "plus size" it is an obese size. I don't mind the shorter slightly stockier barbies although she's got a lot of back in the middle picture!!! I don't think that changing a barbie is going to change how girls view themselves when they hit teenagers. When I was a kid I had barbies and I never said "OMG if I don't look like barbie I'm gonna hate myself when I'm 12". No. It was other kids and my parents who put emphasis on how I looked, not my barbie dolls.

The old Barbies' proportions were unnatural; wasn't the whole point initially to make her proportions normal, rather than just make her (too) fat to make girls feel better about themselves? Adjusting her appearance doesn't necessarily mean she has to be bigger everywhere. Shorten her legs and neck, and widen her waist and shoulders only a little and that should look just fine.

No absolutely not. 1) Plus sized women are cultural predators who prey on our naturally skinny girlfriends and try to make them feel like they are unhealthy or ugly. They invented horrible lies like "real women have curves" 2) plus sized women are selfish. They give birth to fat males but cant spend ONE DAY of their lives telling the modeling industry to fatten up the male side of the modeling industry for their sons. "me me me me me". 3) most famous "chubby women" are with skinny guys. 4) white females call us skinny guys FAT on the internet when they get pissed off "you sound fat and old!"…."no i'm skinny and young". So white females call white males "fat" and then white males are supposed to bend over for her when she overeats. Do i have room to go on? No. Plus its an insult to our asian girlfriends. "hey asian girls. Even fat white females come before you in modeling and the media. Whats it like being invisible in america? (unless you are a nazi sympathizer)."

A big boned Barie? Sure. An obese Barbie like the above picture? No way in hell! All this is doing is telling children/parents that it's ok to be obese. Do you know how many future problems to health that obesity causes? We should in no way promote this!

What number am I on? I'll skip over reasons 10-90. But 91) So the company should make a chubby barbie doll… while they took ken, made him younger looking (they remodeled him from being a man into a boy and the press was like "barbie has a new boy toy") and turned him into a surfer stud (a jock)? Where is the fat ken for the fat barbie? No fat ken? then no fat barbie. Why is everything always a one way street in white culture these days? Always. I'll tell you why. 102 average IQ. If Us genius IQ males ran earth we would say "sure, there should be a chubby barbie. And here is the chubby ken for her. He dont surf but, he's a scholar and an heir. College Ken the Heir Ahhh. perfect match". 92) Its a serious medical condition that kills people. Thats not something to make a toy out of. Whats next? 93) But if they make a fat ken…. then sure. By all means. Otherwise, f-off. Its just more bending over for white females who never reciprocate the sentiment and generosity. "me me me me".

I can see it now. Ok, we make a chubby barbie. Ah now the chubby girls are pleased. Happy happy happy. Finally there is a doll that they see themselves in like a mirror. BUUUUT then we make make the fat ken doll. I can ALREADY see whats coming next. "a fat ken? why does fat barbie have to be paired up ……with a fat guy? what? we can only get fat guys? is that the insinuation? WE are outraged by fat ken". Their esteem will go down again because the company made a fat ken doll for fat barbie which insinuated something they didnt like. I dont know why OTHER males cant see that coming but having a genius IQ is almost like having ESP. We see things nobody sees. Thats why I oversleep alot. I dont like seeing things.

This is absolutely a horrible idea. No young girl is over weight for a healthy reason. Yes their are girls who are larger but they are not fat… they do not have double chins. I think this sends the wrong message to young girls. No they shouldn't be embarrassed of their size but they should be taught to love themselves and treat their bodies with respect and be as healthy as possible and I think making an obese Barbie is telling young girls it is okay to be obese and unhealthy.

Re: MerryBaboonmasBitch – Same loser always posting about Asian women. If you were a genius as you proclaim, you wouldn't be on here. There's nothing you have written that would indicate you have moved from the left side of the bell curve. More like an annoying pseudo-intellectual who has spent too much time as an undergrad.

So I've sat here for 15 minutes thinking about it (in a sincere and hopefully productive manner) and my final thought is: no. skip it. Why? Because you can't make a fat ken for it. The absence of a fat ken is a total insult to fat boys (who WILL Notice that) and the making of a fat ken will be perceived as a total insult to fat girls. Skip all that drama. Just keep her the way she's been my entire life. Society says "She's unrealistic. no girls look like her". Then that makes her neutral. Skinny girls dont look like her and chubby girls dont look like her. Sounds fair to me.

Re: X – I post about alot of things, but you only NOTICE that (i remember. you are the racist who calls asian girls "prostitutes". right? was that you? I could be wrong. Its somebody. They always seem to be here) "if you were a genius as you proclaim, you wouldn't be on here". I didnt realize there was a "no high IQ people allowed on perez" rule. But my CAREER is LITERALLY on the net (since 1997) Just like perez's is. So while my work is open in one window… my play is in another. "More like an annoying pseudo-intellectual who has spent too much time as an undergrad." WRONG. I dropped out college to run my business full time (which is now part time thanks to my employees).

why is it so hard to comprehend°°°° OBESITY is a problem its unhealthy its bad for yourhealth is streesses out yur body .. it affect you skin giving you STRECH MARCKs that are hideous…its not that your gonna look bad it that your gonna die..

That's not plus size..or curvy, that's FAT. No matter how much you try to argue it. 75% of this population is overweight. Magazines, TV, Barbie,etc shouldn't be forced to conform simply because of the majority being overweight. People need to stop trying to force people to change to accommodate them.

I honestly think that making plus-sized barie dolls is just going to show girls that it is okay to be obese and unhealthy. Intsead they should make Barbie dolls that are healthy looking AND skinny. If you show young girls these dolls it will just implant in their minds that it is okay to be over-weight when in reality it isn't

I'd just rather they make Barbie look like an average woman here. And not all overweight women have triple chins and possess the same overweight body type. good fuckin' grief with whoever designed some of this shit.

they shloudnt be fat or skinny, what rebel wilson and melissa mcartney do is horrible you cant be proud of being overweight and overly skinny models cant be proud of it either!!!!! we should VALUE LIFE!!! IF you're opverwight your life gets shortened by ten or twenty years and is the same for people who eat so little they get sick over everything the're bones get thinner they're organs suffer when your overweight or too skinny YOUR BODY IS YOUR TEMPLE FIND THE BALANCE YOU NEED IN YOUR LIFE not too much not too little

"Oh a plus size doll promotes obesity, oh no!"
ARE YOU KIDDING ME.
Seeing endless images of the photoshopped "things" we call women now is just as unhealthy, if not infinitely more unhealthy, than seeing a more shapely doll. For fuck's sake, as if there is anyone that WANTS to be fat or would even be allowed in our fat-shaming society to think that it's OKAY to be fat.
I'm not even a fan, but has NO ONE listened to anything Demi Lovato is saying?! Since she has managed to become the chosen one to speak out on all the bullying to BE THIN that young girls face and it's effects?!
No one is saying make a fat doll, plus size doesn't have to mean FAT, she doesn't need to come with her own fried chicken and paula deen cookbook accessories, but posturing that dolls could better achieve some more inclusive body types is no more crazy than saying there should be varying ethnicities of dolls.

Clearly from most of these comments, anyone wondering if they should try to give barbie a natural or more shapely figure, has their answer…don't, because people won't buy it. Because people are assholes and don't want to see something that doesn't conform to their own idea of health or beauty…so it's pointless.

Barbie is a product. They are gonna make whatever that sell no matter what anyone says. I think plus sized women are gorgeous (some people are naturally weightier no matter how healthy their lifestyle is). Naturally thin girls are great too (some people just can't seem to put on weight no matter how much they eat). It's not even a fault on how they look. And beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. No one should be condemned for thinking certain looks are pretty.

I agree…the chin is too big.
These ideas should NOT be considered 'COMPLAINING', but yet 'SUGGESTIONS'. It is a good idea to have many types of Barbies & Kens just like there are many different racial/ethnicities of them.
Also, maybe the plus size could be a bit less fat to aid in a healthier barbie.
Some women a little overweight can have perfect health. Each person is different.